Made From Scratch: A Memoir

The true story of how celebrity chef Sandra Lee went from being raised on food stamps to starring in her own TV show, Semi-Homemade Cooking, on the Food Network. This powerful, emotional, and astonishing story will inspire anyone who has faced adversity to overcome challenges and persevere. Sandra's candid account of her personal journey offers a rare glimpse into the life of the woman behind the phenomenal success of Semi-Homemade.

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Publisher's Summary

The true story of how celebrity chef Sandra Lee went from being raised on food stamps to starring in her own TV show, Semi-Homemade Cooking, on the Food Network. This powerful, emotional, and astonishing story will inspire anyone who has faced adversity to overcome challenges and persevere. Sandra's candid account of her personal journey offers a rare glimpse into the life of the woman behind the phenomenal success of Semi-Homemade.

Smart, witty, and moving, Made From Scratch is an uplifting tale of determination and survival. Sandra is stunningly open about her abusive childhood and the responsibility thrust upon her at an early age to be the caretaker of her family. Through a series of tragedies and challenges, she painfully discovered that we are all learned to be a self-sufficient and independent woman.

After moving to Wisconsin at 15 to live with her father, an unexpected tragedy and the fallout from his mistakes required her to get her own apartment while still in high school. At 21, Sandra moved to Los Angeles, working with the gritty resolve and make-do skills she learned as a child, she became a millionaire by the time she was 25, only to lose her fortune before the age of 30 and have to start all over again. Sandra started Semi-Homemade, smarter and wiser from her past mistakes, and has never looked back.

Now dedicated to helping others through various charities and foundations, Sandra is committed to aiding and inspiring people to reach their dreams. Her unforgettable story will show that if she can do it, you can too. Made From Scratch will make you laugh, cry, think, and embrace the grace and glory in every day. Sometimes feisty but always sincere, Made From Scratch has all of the ingredients that make up the recipe of a courageous life and remarkable success.

This is an interesting, somewhat inspiring memoir, read very nicely by the author. Not great or earth-shaking, but really quite interesting hearing all the details about how she was able to climb from low to high. A really nice aspect was how I felt I could relate - how I could feel I was in her shoes with her struggles & successes.

Her start as a child was ugly and difficult, but not as horrific as she seems to think it was - more dysfunctional (yes, very much so) than disastrous. It does indeed have the appearance of less than auspicious beginnings, but this is true of many who rise to great heights. And not everyone is fortunate enough to have the unwavering support she had from her grandmother, even if often from afar. Having someone who believes in you and to whom you can always turn IS a blessing common to those who work their way up from great depths to great success, and many acknowledge and remark that they would not have succeeded without that grace.

Likewise, her successes appear to be made in no small part of incredible good fortune - I was rather amazed at how she rather "magically" transformed what seemed (to me, at least) as a rather mundane and relatively common talent into a blockbuster. She started by selling a window dressing - what I marveled at more than her talent, hard work (she DID work very hard), and business savvy, was how many people wanted window dressings, to be her customers!! I had no idea!! Then again, I'm not at all familiar with her work, maybe it's beyond fabulous. In fact, I'm not familiar with her at all, had never heard of her before. (Maybe because I don't watch TV?)

Which brings me to a very salient point: She is, as far as I can tell, NOT the same Sandra Lee who wrote some incredible Australian non-fiction stories available here on Audible.com!! THIS Sandra Lee, here on this page, seems like a nice enough person with good story to tell, and her book is in fact well-written and she's done an admirable job narrating it - but no hint that she is associated with those other books - nor Australia!! Just a heads-up to anyone who, like I did, thinks they are the same Sandra Lee - they are not! But still a worthwhile book, make no mistake!! I would, in fact, recommend it to anyone who IS looking for the American homemaker-TV personality Sandra Lee!! It's a good story!!

A friend of mine suggested reading this book. Prior to that I had never heard of Sandra Lee. This is a pretty good rags to riches story. She overcame some really serious challenges in her life with hard work, risk taking and a lot a moxie. She did get some good breaks too. But, she was smart enough to take advantage of them when they came along.

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